AICPA

Company: American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, New York, NY Company Description: The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (www.aicpa.org) is the national, professional association of CPAs, with more than 350,000 members. Its mission is to provide members with the resources, information and leadership that enable them to provide valuable services in the highest professional manner to benefit the public, employers and clients. Nomination Category: Corporate Communications, Investor Relations, & Public Relations Categories Nomination Sub Category: Communications Team of the Year

Nomination Title: AICPA Communications and Media Channels Team

1. Tell the story about what this nominated team achieved since January 1 2008 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

In 2008, the Communications Team continued to develop in organization and expertise. In July, Magazines and Newsletters joined the Communications Team, and the group became the Communications and Media Channels Team (CMCT), allowing us collectively to capitalize on the teams’ considerable newsgathering and distribution functions. The CMC T now consists of Advertising & Brand Management, Communications, Creative Services, Media Relations and Magazine & Newsletters, which includes advertising sales. Each area makes significant contributions to the AICPA’s success as the nation’s premier professional organization for CPAs. The materials and programs the CMCT produces and manages on behalf of members, state CPA societies, the public, AICPA staff and other audiences, continues to grow in volume and range.

Start Here, Go Places. Student Recruitment Campaign: the program acquired 63,460 new leads. Of these leads, early college students are five times more likely to choose a career in the profession and 10 times more likely to pursue CPA certification than the general early college population.

The Edge: the monthly newsletter that focuses exclusively on issues and concerns to young professional consistently received a high rate of new subscribers and maintained an open rate well above industry standards: 45% among its 40,000 subscribers.

Feed the Pig for Tweens, a math-based curriculum for 4th-6th graders, extends the savings message of the profession’s financial literacy effort to a younger audience. The program launched August and by November, orders were placed for more than 35,000 kits, representing a potential reach of more than 1,000,000 students.

Executive Communications: the team provides volunteer leaders and state CPA societies with the resources they need to deliver the profession’s messages. The team supported leaders in delivering more than 300 PowerPoint presentations, speeches, videos, issue briefings and other resources to assist AICPA leadership in their outreach.

Internal Communications: In May, an internal survey indicated that staff was looking for shorter, more to the point publications that met their individuals needs, while reducing the amount of email messages. More than 300 employees responded to the survey. The results provided the internal communications staff with an opportunity to revise and revision the Team Network News Family of publications, its branding and purpose. Approximately 90% of survey respondents found the information in TNN to be good or excellent. TNN has a readership rate of 95.1% of staff.

Launched on September 15, 2008, CPA Letter Daily points readers to the original articles for in-depth information and to videos, resources and tools, including AICPA information and websites. Links to numerous online resources and interactive features round out the e-newsletter. A next-generation RSS feed, or widget, containing the day’s news stories can be grabbed from the www.aicpa.org home page and placed on members’ or state CPA societies’ websites, social networking profiles or blogs. CPA Letter Daily is offered on an opt-in basis. By November 6 more than 94,000 CPAs and financial professionals signed up. The open rate hovers in the 45 percent to 47 percent range, well above the industry standard.

The Media Relations team presents CPAs to the public as skilled professionals and objective experts through outreach to the international, national, regional and local press. Over the past year, the AICPA and its spokespeople have appeared in more than 3,000 news stories, generating more than two billion media impressions. AICPA spokespeople have been quoted in ABC World News, Chicago Tribune, Fortune Small Business and USA Today, among many other outlets.

Working with IT, the Journal of Accountancy team planned, designed and developed an entirely new website during fiscal year 2008, which launched in October. More than 10 years of Journal archives were moved to a content management system, and the overhauled site offers AICPA members new features including daily news, multimedia and web-exclusive content, plus a host of interactive tools. The site’s robust search and advanced search capabilities allow seamless searching across JournalofAccountancy.com, AICPA.org and CPA2Biz.com. The new JournalofAccountancy.com opens the door to previously unavailable revenue streams.

2. List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the nominated team:

Janice Maiman is Vice-President, Communications & Media Channels for the AICPA. She directs internal communications to state society audiences, member groups, and Institute staff, as well as executive communications and special communications projects. She also is in charge of the Institute's Media Relations function and multi-media group.

Maiman has been a key player in launching 360 Degrees of Financial Literacy program, designing and executing the grassroots communications program called CPA Ambassadors, and directing the image enhancement campaign and advertising program.

She holds a B.A. in English from Brooklyn College and a Masters in writing from the University of Virginia.